How

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​What You Can Do

If you’re reading this, you’re ready to act. Beyond donating, staying informed and sharing important news with your friends and family, you want to do something. The steps you take need not be grand gestures. From paying attention to where the wood for your new cabinets came from to drinking coffee that doesn’t harm forests, you can make a difference through everyday actions that help protect and improve the planet we all share.

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EditImage Description: A woman rides a bike with her two children on the back

EditText: This idea isn’t new — car shares and bike lanes have been popping up in cities around the world. For good reason, too. If we each park the car and, instead, bike to work or errands just once every two weeks, we would save one billion gallons of gasoline per year. Every mile pedaled rather than driven keeps nearly one pound of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Even a short, four-mile round-trip bike ride keeps about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air we breathe. If biking is not an option, consider taking public transit or carpooling with coworkers and take advantage of those HOV lanes.

If you do have to drive, there’s still a lot you can do:

Choose an efficient vehicle. The difference between a car that gets 20 MPG and one that gets 30 MPG not only amounts to savings at the gas pump. Each gallon of gasoline burned creates 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, so with a car that gets 10 more mpg, you could reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by about 2,500 pounds per year. You could also consider purchasing a gas-electric hybrid car.

Remove extra weight in the trunk to increase your car’s fuel efficiency. The heavier the car, the harder the engine has to work and the more fuel it consumes. The EPA estimates that for every extra 100 pounds your car carries, it loses 2% in fuel economy.

Make sure that your tires are properly inflated. To find out how much air should be in your tires, check your owners' manual. The EPA estimates that properly inflating your tires can increase fuel efficiency by 3% — and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 275 pounds per year.

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EditText: Making your home more energy efficient can help reduce high energy bills, improve comfort and protect the environment. When shopping for appliances or other household products, opt for those that have been independently certified to save energy and help prevent climate change. Energy efficient options, like those that have been qualified by
ENERGY STAR in the United States, have met the energy efficiency requirements established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The ENERGY STAR program has
international partners, including the European Union, Japan and Taiwan.

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EditText: The things you buy every day can lead to a more sustainable world — and there are guides to finding out how.

For example, you can support the production of sustainable palm oil by choosing products with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) trademark. You can download
RSPO’s shopping guide to make sure your cereal, cookies and soap contain only certified sustainable palm oil.

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EditText: When it comes to reducing the environmental impact of a daily coffee habit, many people do their part by replacing disposable cups with reusable mugs — an important step to reducing waste. But did you know that your choice of coffee itself can have a positive social and environmental impact?

For example, when coffee is grown under the canopy of healthy forests, it produces tasty coffee that also helps protect the planet by providing habitat for unique species and absorbing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Other important factors in sustainable coffee include maintaining soil quality and natural habitat on farms, as well as decreasing the use of herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

CI and
Starbucks Coffee Company together developed Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices — Starbucks’ ethical sourcing guidelines that help the company purchase coffee that is responsibly grown and ethically traded. These guidelines help ensure that the coffee producers the company purchases from are not only producing high-quality coffee, but are also being good stewards of the environment and maintaining quality of life for their families and employees. Today, 90% of Starbucks coffee is sourced through C.A.F.E. Practices, and you can find CI’s logo on the back of many of its coffee packages.

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Not all seafood is created equal — but you can help keep the Earth’s oceans and rivers healthy and balanced by choosing to eat fish that has been sustainably sourced. Your choices can help shift demand away from unsustainably harvested stocks and put pressure on suppliers to improve practices so that all fisheries are better managed.

How can you tell which products are sustainably sourced? Here are several ways to find out:

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Eating meat-free just one day a week can reduce your impact on the planet. It’s easy to not think about the environment when you’re biting into a juicy hamburger, but consider these costs:

The production of one burger requires about 1,850 gallons of water — the bulk of which is used to grow grain for cattle feed.

Because cattle ranching requires large tracts of land, producers frequently clear-cut tropical forests to provide pastures for their herds. Extensive cattle ranching accounts for 80% of the Amazon's deforestation. By one estimate, for every head of cattle, two football fields of rainforest have been destroyed.

If everyone in the United States ate just one more vegetarian meal a week for one year, more than 36,000 trillion gallons of water would be saved. Other protein-rich foods like black beans, chickpeas and tempeh make tasty substitute burgers.

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We’re all guilty of throwing away food at some point — in fact, roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted. And once that half-sandwich or week-old lasagna is in the trash can, it’s easy to forget about the environmental impacts.

But wasted food contributes billions of tons of greenhouse gases. By the time you step into a grocery store, nearly 3.3 billion tons of emissions are already on their way to the atmosphere due to the production, processing and transportation of food that is eventually wasted. Then, in the landfill, decomposing organic waste generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps 23 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. More than 20% of all methane emissions come from landfills.

Wasted food also means wasted water — about 25% of all fresh water consumed annually in the United States is associated with discarded food. Water losses through food waste occur at home, but they also happen through inefficient food harvesting, transport, distribution, processing and storage methods. In the U.S. alone, we throw away or waste about 30% of our food — or about 11 trillion gallons of irrigation water. Scientists estimate that we could reduce global water consumption by more than one-third if we could eliminate food loss and waste. According to the
World Resources Institute, inside the roughly 1.3 billion tons of food lost or wasted every year worldwide is 45 trillion gallons of water.

The good news is that reducing food waste is very easy — it just takes a little extra planning. A number of organizations have produced lists of tips, including the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, who paired up and started a global campaign,
Think Eat Save. A few simple suggestions:

Before you go shopping, plan your meals; inventory your fridge and pantry; and make (and stick to) a list.

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Composting is nature’s way of recycling. Food scraps are full of energy to harvest and — even if you live in a yardless urban apartment — you can keep them out of the trash bin and out of landfills, where they would otherwise release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Even a fire escape or balcony can provide enough space for a small bin, pail or bucket to toss food scraps into. You can purchase these online or
make your own indoor bin.
Worm composting can also be done indoors. This method uses red worms to transform food scraps into vermicompost.

If you have the yard space, here’s a
helpful DIY composting guide. No garden to use the compost in? Consider using the compost in your houseplants, offering it to neighbors with gardens, or donating it to a school, community garden or farm.

Your responsible consumption will reduce the demand for endangered species. For instance, when traveling, avoid purchasing wild animal products including ivory, meat, skins and traditional medicines. Buy local handicrafts instead. Ask questions before you buy souvenirs to make sure your purchases are legally sourced. When in doubt, do not buy anything that contains wildlife parts.

Learn about CI’s partner, the
Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking, that is trying to reduce consumer demand for illegally-traded wildlife and goods by raising awareness of the impacts the trade has on natural resources and human well-being. Visit their website to find resources and follow the latest reports about the illegal wildlife trafficking trade.

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With advances in transportation and information technology, even the most remote places on Earth are within reach. In fact, tourism is now the world's largest industry, with ecotourism the fastest growing segment in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia and the Greater Mekong region.

Of course, traveling and the things that go with it — flights, hotel rooms, cab rides and rental cars — can mean significant damage to the environment and the biodiversity it holds. So the next time you go on vacation or take a business trip, consider ways you can cut down on carbon emissions:

Use local and public transport whenever possible. If you have to rent a car, ask for a hybrid or electric vehicle.

Stay in hotels that offer environmentally-friendly properties and programs. CI worked with
Starwood Hotels & Resorts on setting and achieving environmental performance goals, and the company has committed to reducing energy consumption by 30% and water consumption by 20% by the year 2020. CI also worked with
Marriott International on a sustainability strategy to minimize the company’s carbon footprint. No matter where you stay, at check-in, request that your sheets and towels are not changed unless left on the floor and ask whether your recyclables are properly recycled. Make sure that heating/cooling is turned off when you’re not in the room. At check-out, leave a comment card to let the management know whether your requests were satisfied and praise successful efforts to be green.

Or stay closer to home and help make your community greener. The
Arbor Day Foundation offers an easy-to-use database for locating tree planting and conservation-oriented volunteer opportunities. Every small and large step, from picking up trash to starting a community garden, will make a difference. And don’t just save your good deeds for Earth Day. The planet needs volunteers all year.